title: Everyday life and health concepts among blue-collar female workers in Denmark: implications for health promotion aiming at reducing health inequalities.
abstract: This article introduces a perspective on the health of women with low levels of education in terms of organisation of their everyday life. The aim is to demonstrate the ways in which the women's concept of health is contingent on the conditions encountered in everyday life. A qualitative study based on interviews with the women forms the basis for the discussion. The analysis shows that the women find it difficult to adopt the official discourse on health and its foundation in a biomedical tradition. The article argues that it is necessary to move away from the educational approach focusing on risk and lifestyle with the goal of regulating individual behaviour. Instead, an approach is suggested which can provide the women with the opportunity to gain control of the everyday health determinants which are normally beyond their immediate reach. This is based on the argument that it is necessary to work with a health promotion and education strategy capable of operating within the various interactive patterns between 'environment' and 'individual' which form the foundation for health.
authors.affiliation: Research Programme in Learning for Care, Sustainability and Health, University of Aarhus, Tuborgvej 164, 2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark. jema@dpu.dk
authors.forename: Jeanette Magne
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Jensen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003718:Denmark; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008019:Life Style; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology*; D014931:Women, Working / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: empowerment; gender; health determinants; health promotion; power; quality of life; socioeconomic status; workforce development; workplace